Projects

Using growth media available from Stemcell technologies, along with our own tools and techniques, we can isolate and grow intestinal stem cells from mice or human patient donors into enteroid cultures. Enteroids are 3D cell cultures that replicate many of the structures and types of cells found in the intestinal lining. We propose to work with Stemcell technologies to continue to develop their growth media for enteroid culture and apply these new media and techniques to further or understanding of how these cells help the body defend against infection. We will study how the goblet cells within the enteroids respond to infectious bacteria to produce protective mucus and how the other cells of the enteroid produce antimicrobial factors to kill the invading bacteria, defend themselves from attack and produce factors to recruit immune cells to the site of infection.